As a result of various modifications applied to a recording apparatus (printer) or a record medium, of an inkjet recording system, a thermal transfer recording system or other recording system, they can produce images with quality comparable to that of silver salt color photographs and in these days frequently used as a technique to produce a hard copy of image information captured by a digital cameral, a digital video camera, a scanner or the like, or electronic image information in a computer on paper.
In addition, in these recording systems, there is broadly known a technique to laminate with a laminate layer a recording surface of a recording medium having an image recorded thereon, for the purpose of providing lasting durability by protecting the recording surface of the recording medium, and improving the image quality by increasing glossiness or smoothness of the recording surface.
There exists, as an apparatus for use in laminating a recording surface, a laminating apparatus that supplies a laminate material made up of a substrate and a laminate layer peelably formed on the substrate onto the recording surface of each recording medium, thermally press bonding a laminate of the recording medium and the laminate material, thereby transferring the laminate layer onto the recording surface of the recording medium, and peeling off the substrate from the laminate layer (Patent Document 1).
However, in the laminating apparatus disclosed in the Patent Document 1, it is necessary to replace a laminate material with a new one having a suitable width every time a recording medium is replaced with a new one having a different width, and if an attempt is made to omit this troublesome replacement work, laminate materials having a relatively large width is to be used for various recording media having different widths. In this case, a remaining portion of the laminate layer (a portion not laminated on the recording surface: non-laminated portion) must be cut away along an edge of the recording medium after the lamination process. Whichever the case is, a troublesome work must be done.
To address the above, there exists a laminating apparatus that can omit the troublesome work of cutting away the non-laminated portion (Patent Document 2). FIG. 54 illustrates a schematic arrangement of the laminating apparatus having almost the same arrangement as that of the laminating apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, in that a recording medium A cut into a piece having a given feeding length and a laminate material B supplied as a continuous sheet from a roll are laminated together via a film guide roll F; they are thermally bonded together when passing between a platen roll G and a heated intermediate roll H; and then a substrate C is peeled off from a laminate layer D by a peeling-off roll I disposed on the downstream side, and in the laminating apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2, a non-laminated portion Db is cut away from a laminated portion Da when peeling off the substrate C and is taken away along with the substrate C.
Patent Document 1: Official Gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Sho-58-224779
Patent Document 2: Official Gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei-10-211651